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Introductory undergraduate statistics courses widely focus on statistical concepts or software-based data analysis. Despite the fact that the analysis of real data has shown to enhance students' engagement, the step of data collection is often neglected. Once students know the challenges of data collection, they are more aware of potential imperfections, such as a lack of representativeness, during data analysis. In this paper, we present a course that closes the gap allowing Business and Economics students to conduct a full survey under realistic conditions including questionnaire design, sampling, and data analysis. It entangles theory and application by combining course-based research experiences with cooperative learning and a flipped classroom approach. Students do not only obtain competences in the field of statistics, they also gain experiences and self-confidence for future research projects because the lecturer acts as a mentor guiding the students throughout the project. Although statistics is usually an unpopular field for Business and Economics students, their motivation was high throughout the semester as they acted as researchers who analysed a specific research question. This is in agreement with student feedback, which highlights the promotion of research-related competences and self-efficacy within the course.

For decades, self-report instruments -- which rely heavily on students' perceptions and beliefs -- have been the dominant way of measuring motivation and strategy use. Event-based measures based on online trace data arguably has the potential to remove analytical restrictions of self-report measures. The purpose of this study is therefore to triangulate constructs suggested in theory and measured using self-reported data with revealed online traces of learning behaviour. The results show that online trace data of learning behaviour are complementary to self-reports, as they explained a unique proportion of variance in student academic performance. The results also reveal that self-reports explain more variance in online learning behaviour of prior weeks than variance in learning behaviour in succeeding weeks. Student motivation is, however, to a lesser extent captured with online trace data, likely because of its covert nature. In that respect, it is of importance to recognize the crucial role of self-reports in capturing student learning holistically. This manuscript is 'frontline' in the sense that event-based measurement methodologies with online trace data are relatively unexplored. The comparison with self-report data made in this manuscript sheds new light on the added values of innovative and traditional methods of measuring motivation and strategy use.

A simple analysis of the learners' academic status at different levels of education shows that these learners have poor performance in probability and statistics subject and they have negative attitude to this subject. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the attitude and academic achievement of 134 students of three classes of a compulsory subject of the fourth period aimed at probabilistic and statistical content, at a federal university, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, at the end of 2017. We used the Auzmendi Scale (1992) that considers attitudes towards mathematics and statistics, at the same time, being composed of five basic factors (utility, anxiety, trust, pleasure and motivation). Some of the results indicate that there is an indication that students lack confidence in solving statistical and probabilistic problems, noting that there is no great anxiety about Probability and Statistics, however, they do not feel confident about solving problems probabilistic and statistical. And they present initial motivation and this fact generates better results in the first evaluation of the discipline that deals with basic concepts of Combinatorial Analysis and Probability.

Iran's education system is exam-based and to gain admission to universities at undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels, candidates have to sit a competitive examination. For this reason, developing an EAP course which prepares the candidates for these examinations is of crucial importance. The present study attempted to develop an EAP course for the selected number of undergraduate students of Statistics at Alzahra University and Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. The aim was to prepare these students for the English language section of the entrance examination for MS degree in Statistics and then to determine if there was any significant difference between students' performance in their pre and post tests. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied in this study and different instruments such as a questionnaire, semi-structured and structured interviews, and analysis of texts, were used to gather needs analysis data. The results indicated that the majority of participants preferred the presence of more ESP courses at universities. There was also a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores of the participants who took part in the EAP course.

This study compares teacher trainee students (TTSs), electronic learning technology (ELT) readiness, competence as well as their constraints to ELT readiness using 373 University education students' from Botswana and Nigeria that are randomly selected. Data was descriptively analysed based on the research objectives and hypotheses using mean analysis, frequency counts, independent t-test and Pearson correlation analysis. Results indicate a significant difference between Botswana and Nigerian TTSs' in ELT preparation t (371) = -6.26, p<0.05 and competency t (371) = -1.96, p<0.05. However, Nigeria seems better prepared and more competent than their counterpart. Results further indicate a significant relationship r (371) = 0.274, p = 0.05 between TTSs ELT preparedness and their competence irrespective of their location. This indicates that TTSs mode of preparation influenced their competency in ELT. Students are faced with many challenges ranging from lack of ELT knowledge, technical staff, computers, internet connectivity, power outage, interest among others. This has implications for teacher preparation and global practices.

In order to increase students' awareness for and comfort with mathematical modeling of biological processes, and increase their understanding of diffusion, the following lab was developed for use in 100-level, majors/non-majors biology and neuroscience courses. The activity begins with generation of a data set that uses coin-flips to replicate movement of dye molecules at an interface of a permeable gel. The class results are then collapsed into a single data set that is used to predict the movement of real dye molecules over time, which are then measured by students in a "wet-lab" activity.

A workforce that can adapt to the fast changing global dynamics is critical for sustainable growth and development. Secondary level segment in the education cycle of a Kenyan plays a key role in the development of this workforce and is important since it de-links one from elementary (primary) learning, provides a chance for one to complete the cycle of basic education and anchors as a springboard to either tertiary or higher learning. The study focused on the relationship between subsidized free day secondary education (SFDSE) and learners' retention in secondary schools. The specific objectives were to determine retention rates of students in secondary schools before and after the introduction of SFDSE by the government since the year 2008 and the adequacy of SFDSE funds in enhancing retention of learners in secondary schools in Bungoma County. The target population of the study comprised of all the 3,993 stakeholders in the education sector including the Educational Officers, Principals, B.O.G chairpersons, P.T.A chairpersons and Parents from each Sub County in Bungoma County in Kenya. Cross-sectional survey research and proportional stratified sampling were adopted to obtain a sample size of 340 respondents purposively for the study. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from the respondents. Qualitative data collected was analyzed using content analysis while quantitative data using descriptive statistics. The results indicated SFDSE had increased enrollment and transition rates and reduced dropout rates of the learners at secondary level education level. The study recommended that due to the importance of SFDSE which had enhanced retention, the amount allocated per child should be increased and the government should also remove the extra burdens from the parents by removing extra charges. The information was useful to education planners, stakeholders and well wishers.

Past research have pointed out that excellent strategies have been written but extremely small have been accomplished in their implementation. It has additionally been proposed that only 10% of formulated strategies are successfully implemented. However, crafting the best strategy is not the end in itself but the ultimate result will only be realized once the plan is successfully implemented. A strategic plan is a management tool that is used to transform organizational objectives into actions. The purpose of this study was to establish the effects of strategic plan implementation on organizational performance: a case study of public Secondary Schools in Kenya. The country in the recent past has experienced challenges like student declining performance in national examinations and increased student enrolments this implies that student cannot be able to join higher learning institutions which mean their future is blurred. The specific objectives were to analyze the effects of leadership style and communication in successful implementation of the strategic plans. A descriptive survey design using stratified sampling was used. The study population comprised of the school managers including teachers, principals and deputy principals serving in selected schools. Primary data was collected through questionnaires that were administered through "drop and pick later" method while secondary data was gathered from relevant Ministry of Education, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Government of Kenya publications like the Strategic plan, TSC Act, Ministry of Education (MoE) records. Quantitative data was analyzed though descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Quantitative data was presented using bar graphs, pie charts and frequency distribution tables.

The relevance of the research problem is conditioned by the weak development of measurement, assessment of educational competences at an operational level, at the level of actions, by insufficient applications of psycho-pedagogical theories and methods of mathematical statistics. The aim of the work is to develop through teaching experiments the content and structure of the educational competencies at the operational level and actions to measure accurately the educational competencies of students. Research methods: questionnaires, ranking, self-evaluation method--rating, content analysis of educational material, modeling of the content and structure of educational competences in the context of skills for a specific section of the physics course, statistical processing of the data. The result of the research is the realization of the ideas of measurement, assessment of educational competences by creating a model of the content and structure of abilities and skills for a specific section of the course at the level of operations, actions. Measurement of abilities and skills at the level of operations and actions is a more accurate measurement of educational competences in comparison with the existing methods. The proposed model of educational competences' structure allows one to see the content of the material at the level of actions, as the knowledge is solid when it is evidenced by the execution of actions (solving of equations, tasks, etc.).

In this study, the problem is limited factors relating to the learning effectiveness and teacher competence in improving the teacher performance. Therefore, this study will try to get explanations from some main issues which include the learning effectiveness issue, and teacher competence to increase teacher performance in Madrasah Tsanawiyah at Serang, Banten, Indonesia. The goal in this research is to get facts about correlation and to see the levels of effectiveness learning and teacher competence as well as the teacher performance in Madrasah Tsanawiyah at Serang, Banten, Indonesia. This research is directed in describing and analyzing the data findings in depth are using the quantitative analysis methods of descriptive and inferential. Collecting data is using the instrument, about the instrument is used as a primary assessment way to collect the information about factors of effectiveness learning, teacher competence, and teacher performance. The samples are 150 Teacher in Madrasah Tsanawiyah at Serang, Banten, Indonesia. The results of this research is there is a relationship between learning effectiveness and teacher performance, there is a relationship between teacher competence and teacher performance, the results of this study can be concluded that increasing teacher performance can be carried out in the presence of learning effectiveness and teacher competence in the Madrasah Tsanawiyah, teachers who have the good performance seen from an process of learning effectiveness as well as the teacher competency.

The purpose of this study is to look closely at how aspects of instructional leadership, and organizational learning affect the quality of madrasah in improving the quality of graduate the state madrasah aliyah. The experiment was conducted using a quantitative approach with descriptive and inferential methods, in inferential methods used correlation analysis and regression analysis. The process is first conducted analysis of data validity and reliability of data as well as test for normality using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. The study population is the overall teacher the State Madrasah Aliyah at Jakarta Capital Region. The study sample size of 150 teachers. The collecting data about the instrument with research using Likert scale, to obtain data on instructional leadership, organizational learning, quality of madrassah and the quality of graduates. The results of research known that headmaster instructional leadership has a strong and positive relationship with the quality of the madrasah, the quality of graduates, organizational Learnings have strong relationships and positive impact on the quality of madrasah. The quality of graduates and have a reciprocal relationship with a high instructional leadership. It can be concluded that an increasing in the quality of madrasah and the quality of graduates at the school can be done with an increase in instructional leadership and organization of learning in the madrasah. Thus improvement instructional leadership and organizational learning have a positive influence on the improvement of the quality of madrasah and the achievement of the quality of graduates.

This article is the first to thoroughly investigate the state of undergraduate statistics education in the Arab world. It discusses evidence with respect to the quality of education in general and statistics education in particular. Based on a survey of statistics programs in Arab universities, several issues pertaining to curriculum structure, pedagogical practices, and matching learning outcomes with labor market needs are discussed. The survey results reveal a gap between the undergraduate statistics programs in Arab universities and the international curriculum guidelines. This gap signals the urgent need for reforming and enhancing statistics education to address the needs of the labor market in this era of information. Recommendations and strategic reforms based on best international practices are outlined.

In this study we assessed the usefulness of a multifaceted teaching framework in an advanced statistics course. We sought to expand on past findings by using this framework to assess changes in anxiety and self-efficacy, and we collected focus group data to ascertain whether students attribute such changes to a multifaceted teaching approach. Statistics anxiety significantly decreased and students' current statistics self-efficacy increased. Further, course performance was positively correlated with self-efficacy and a strong negative relationship between statistics anxiety and self-efficacy was documented. Focus group data suggested students appreciated aspects of this teaching framework and that they thought it served to reduce anxiety. In addition to this teaching framework, two instructional techniques were used to teach two specific statistical concepts. These techniques did not result in significant performance differences; however, students reported enjoying the activities and encouraged their use in future classes. Overall, this study suggests a multifaceted teaching framework may be useful in helping graduate students overcome anxiety and increase self-efficacy when completing an advanced statistics course. The research presented here adds to the growing literature concerning the importance of non-cognitive factors when teaching statistics. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Preparing students to be critical thinkers and effective communicators is essential in today's multinational and technologically sophisticated environment. New electronic technologies provide opportunities for creating learning environments that extend the possibilities of "old" but still essential technologies: books, blackboards, and linear, one-way communication media. Such technologies contribute to engagement and meaningful learning in the higher education sector. Greater understanding in educational psychology and the effectiveness of educational interventions has motivated the development of various student-centred pedagogies (e.g. Problem-Based Learning [PBL]) addressing perceived shortcomings of traditional didactic instruction. PBL as a pedagogy promotes meaningful learning due largely to its power to stimulate critical, reflective and creative thinking. Can teaching staff, then, adopt technology-based approaches to create multi-disciplinary interactive PBL environments that enhance learning and excite students, inspiring them to take ownership of their own education? This paper presents a cross-case analysis of four cases that explore how classroom-based learning activities have been transferred to online formats in universities to improve critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and other learning attributes across a range of disciplines.

As manifested by various studies conducted, the present state of Mathematics education in the teaching-learning process is relatively declining and the existing effort to identify emotional intelligence and mathematics competencies of Mathematics major student-teachers at Higher Education Institutions in Isabela is an attempt to help alleviate the degenerate situation, in more especially that these student-teachers will eventually enter the teaching profession in the soonest possible time. It aimed to determine the emotional intelligence of the student-teachers in terms of emotional literacy, emotional quotient competencies and emotional quotient values and attitudes and determine the level of competence of the student-teachers in elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, advanced algebra, geometry, trigonometry and statistics. The level of emotional intelligence of student-teachers in terms of emotional literacy, emotional quotient competencies and emotional quotient on values and attitudes of the respondents registered "Vulnerable" results and their level of mathematical competence in elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, advanced algebra, geometry, trigonometry and statistics were rated "Satisfactory".

This paper discusses a student research project that is part of an advanced cost accounting class. The project emphasizes active learning, integrates cost accounting with macroeconomics and statistics by "learning by doing" using real world data. Students analyze sales data for a publicly listed company by focusing on the company's growth rates in sales, and their growth rates in real sales by adjusting for inflation using the various consumer price indices or producer price indices that are available, and regressing the sales growth rates against macroeconomic variables such as gross domestic product and the various types of personal consumption expenditure items.

Most postgraduate programmes, that have research components, require students to take at least one course of research statistics. Not all postgraduate programmes are science based, there are a significant number of postgraduate students who are from the social sciences that will be taking statistics courses, as they try to complete their postgraduate studies. As postgraduate students come from varied backgrounds, from those who have left school for more than a decade, to those who just completed their undergraduate studies, postgraduate statistics course may be one of the toughest to teach. These students come into the course with preconceived thoughts and attitude, which would either increase their anxiety towards statistics, or decrease their anxiety. Previous studies have shown that students reported high level of statistics anxiety during a statistics course. Unfortunately, there are limited studies on statistics anxiety in the Malaysian postgraduate population. Therefore, this study aims to determine the level of anxiety towards statistics among postgraduate student. This study also aims to explore factors that are associated with statistics anxiety among postgraduate students at the Faculty of Education, UKM. As a secondary outcome, this study explores the type of evaluation preferred by postgraduate students in relation to a statistics course. All postgraduate students who registered for the Research Statistics course at the Faculty of Education, National University of Malaysia, during the study period were invited to participate in the study. A total of 141 students completed the questionnaire and was included in this paper. This study found that a significant (21.7%) of the students surveyed have anxiety in at least one of the statistics anxiety domain, either in anxiety towards class activities, attitude towards class, attitude towards Mathematics or self-perception of ability to perform in statistics. This study found that ethnicity was associated with higher anxiety towards class activities, with the Malays being more anxious compared to the non-Malays. Both ethnicity and bachelor's degree were associated with attitude towards class and attitude towards Mathematics. For these two domains, the male students and students from non-science based bachelor's degree, showed more anxiety compared to female students. Self-perception of ability to perform in statistics was not associated with any socio-demographic factors included in this study. Students in this study overwhelmingly preferred individual assignment as an evaluation method, followed by mid-semester examination, and the final semester examination. Least preferred were online participation and presentation.

Many universities and colleges are increasingly concerned about enhancing the comprehension and knowledge of their students, particularly in the classroom. One of the method to enhancing student success is teaching effectiveness. The objective of this research paper is to propose a novel research model which examines the relationship between teaching effectiveness and student learning outcomes qualitatively. This new model will use a unique and in-depth qualitative case study methodology especially designed for the instructional setting. The anticipated qualitative data collecting techniques will include, but not limited to the following: observations, personal interviews, qualitative survey questionnaires, research field notes, document review, etc. The proposed Model used assumed data and applied statistical Cross-Tabulation and Chi-Square Tests, including a theoretical analysis of the open-ended responses and field notes recorded from participants (a sample of 32 students presently enrolled in a Semester-long English ENG 1200-01 course at a public university in North Carolina). The associative statistical findings found a positive relationship between the teaching effectiveness and student learning. The outcomes of the study will increase the current lack of information on the use of qualitative research designs by determining teaching efficacy and its effects on student achievement. This new model expands the existing measures by providing new measures to examine the teaching effectiveness and its effect on student learning.

Considerable past classroom learning environment research has focused on the primary and secondary levels of education and the subject areas of science and mathematics. The current study is distinctive in its focus on university business statistics learning environments. For the first time, we validated and applied the widely-used What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaires among tertiary statistics students. With a sample of 375 students from 12 university statistics classes, we furnished evidence to support the WIHIC's factor structure, internal consistency reliability, predictive validity (in terms of associations with two types of statistics anxiety) and discriminant validity (in terms of differentiating between three ethnic groups). Limitations, contributions and suggestions for future research are discussed.

According to Howard Gardner, Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard University, intelligence of humans cannot be measured with a single factor such as the IQ level. Instead, he and others have suggested that humans have different types of intelligence. This paper examines whether students registered in online or mostly online courses have a different type of intelligence from students registered in traditional face-to-face courses. At the beginning of the fall semester of 2011, a group of 128 students from four different courses in Business Statistics completed a survey to determine their types of intelligence. Our findings reveal surprising results with important consequences in terms of teaching styles that better fit our students. (Contains 5 charts, 1 footnote and 6 tables.)

In this paper, we describe the introduction of blogs to a class of Masters in Technical and Vocational Education students taking the MBE 1223 Statistics in Education module in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). The purpose of the analysis is to elaborate on the perception of the participants towards blogs before, during and after training regarding the usefulness of their class blog. For the purpose of this study, participants will be required to handle their weekly reflective journals or their learning logs using their class blogs instead of handing them in hard copy weekly. Participants will be encouraged to blog and to provide feedback to their classmates' comments. Respondents will be required to reflect on lessons weekly and to write their reflections on the class blog. They were also required to reflect on their use of the technology in their module.

Statistics plays an integral role in graduate programs. However, numerous intra- and interpersonal factors may lead to successful completion of needed coursework in this area. The authors examined the extent of the relationship between self-efficacy to learn statistics and statistics anxiety, attitude towards statistics, and social support of 166 graduate students enrolled in master's and doctoral programs within colleges of education. Results indicated that statistics anxiety and attitude towards statistics were statistically significant predictors of self-efficacy to learn statistics, yet social support was not a statistically significant predictor of self-efficacy. Insight into how this population responds to statistics courses and implications for educators as well as students are presented.

The aims of this paper are to determine the validity and reliability of SASTSc scale as an instrument to measure students' attitudes that monitors affective components relevant to learning the disciple of statistics with the help of technology and its impact on students' career in a Greek sample. Initially, it consisted of 28 items concerning 5 conceptual subscales which measure students' attitudes concerning Statistics Cognitive Competence, Technology Cognitive Competence, Learning Statistics with Technology, Value of the disciple and Emotions. In particular, the paper reports the responses of 123 Greek students from the department of Preschool Education of the Western Macedonia University in Greece. The results of the present study provide the final scale, which consisted of the all the 28 items of the initial SASTS Scale and for which strong evidence was ascertained.

In this paper I discuss some concerns related to the analysis of focus groups: (a) the issue of generalisation; (b) the problems of using numbers and quantifying in the analysis; (c) how the concrete situation of the focus groups could be included in the analysis, and (d) what formats can be used when quoting from focus groups. Problems with respect to generalisation are discussed; types of generalisation are presented which can be used in focus group research. Arguments are made against using a primarily quantitative perspective in the evaluation of focus group data. It is argued that the situation of the particular group discussion should be taken into account in the analysis. A scheme for analysis that has been developed by the author is presented. Suggestions are made for the characteristics of the quotations in the analyses. (Contains 14 footnotes.)

Introduction: The DRIVER I project drew up a detailed report of European repositories based on data gathered in a survey in which Spain's participation was very low. This created a highly distorted image of the implementation of repositories in Spain. This study aims to analyse the current state of Spanish open-access institutional repositories and to describe their characteristics. Method: The data were gathered through a Web survey. The questionnaire was based on that used by DRIVER I: coverage; technical infrastructure and technical issues; institutional policies; services created; and stimulators and inhibitors for establishing, filling and maintaining their digital institutional repositories. Analysis: Data were tabulated and analysed systematically according responses obtained from the questionnaire and grouped by coverage. Results: Responses were obtained from 38 of the 104 institutions contacted, which had 29 institutional repositories. This represents 78.3% of the Spanish repositories according to the "BuscaRepositorios" directory. Spanish repositories contained mainly full-text materials (journal articles and doctoral theses) together with metadata. The software most used was DSpace, followed by EPrints. The metadata standard most used was Dublin Core. Spanish repositories offered more usage statistics and fewer author-oriented services than the European average. The priorities for the future development of the repositories are the need for clear policies on access to scientific production based on public funding and the need for quality control indicators. Conclusions: This is the first detailed study of Spanish institutional repositories. The key stimulants for establishing, filling and maintaining were, in order of importance, the increase of visibility and citation, the interest of decision-makers, simplicity of use and search services. On the other hand the main inhibitors identified were the absence of policies, the lack of integration with other national and international systems and the lack of awareness efforts among academia. (Contains 6 tables and 8 figures.)

What teachers teach, how they teach it and when they teach it should be guided by the curriculum. This paper focuses on teachers' reports about how they integrate the curriculum documentation in teaching mathematics and statistics concepts. Questionnaires containing both Likert scale and closed and open-ended questions were administered to 75 mathematics teachers who were teaching from Grade 4 to Grade 12 in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. Teachers were requested to indicate their level of the use of national curriculum statement. The findings revealed that they had little idea about how they could integrate the curriculum documentation in mathematics teaching and learning. It is encouraging that some teachers perceived links within the vertical as well as across the horizontal curriculum, both important drivers of quality education. However, it is a concern that most teachers were unable to perceive ways of working within and across the curriculum, suggesting that professional development interventions need to consider ways in which this can be addressed. A further concern is that only 60% of teachers indicated that they used the National Curriculum Statements Grades R-12. Teachers' propensity to use the curriculum was moderated by the factors of age and participation in professional development activities.

In this article we discuss our attempt to incorporate research-informed learning and teaching activities into a final year undergraduate Statistics course. We make use of the Shiny web-based application framework for R to develop "Shiny apps" designed to help facilitate student interaction with methods from recently published papers in the author's primary research field (extreme value theory and applications). We also replace some lectures with dedicated "reading group tutorials." Here, students work in small groups to discuss and critique carefully selected papers from the field. They are also encouraged to use our Shiny apps to implement some of the methods discussed in the papers with their own data, for use in project work. We attempt to evaluate our innovation by comparing students' responses in open-ended data analysis work, and work requiring the interpretation of methods in a recently published paper, to those of students who took the same course two years earlier when our Shiny apps were not available and when research tutorials were not used. This comparison, along with results from a student questionnaire, gives us some confidence that our methods have benefited students, not only in terms of their ability to understand and implement advanced techniques from the recent literature but also in terms of their confidence and overall satisfaction with the course.

Books and courses on research methods, statistics, or both, often necessarily focus on one topic at a time. This compartmentalized approach prevents students from seeing the big picture. To address this shortcoming, I developed an exercise through which students experience the whole research process in a single class period. From posing a question, through devising a method, collecting and analyzing data, to writing the report, students conduct all aspects of a basic research project. After the experience, students reported a significant increase in their understanding of the research process. In addition, students recommended using the exercise in future classes and at other universities. I end by discussing various ways that the exercise can be adapted to other class situations and content areas.

This article seeks to present some of the key challenges in facilitating autonomous learning and effective engagement in the teaching of statistics to undergraduate medical students involved in short-term research projects. With a view to addressing these challenges, recommendations for good practice are presented in the form of ten tips for teachers of medical statistics. The ten tips are justified by appeal to the more general educational literature on self-directed learning and engagement. Practical suggestions for the implementation of these tips are provided on the basis of the author's own experience of teaching statistics to medical students who have embarked on 14-week clinical research projects within the 4th year of their undergraduate curriculum. (Contains 1 figure and 2 endnotes.)

The study aims at investigating university students' acceptance of a statistics learning platform to support the learning of statistics in a blended learning context. Three kinds of digital resources, which are simulations, online videos, and online quizzes, were provided on the platform. Premised on the technology acceptance model, we adopted a revised model consisting of four external factors (self-efficacy, facilitating conditions, subjective norm, and anxiety) that may influence students' perceptions and acceptance of the platform. A mixed research method was used. A total of 102 participants were involved in this study. Data collection includes questionnaires survey, individual interviews, and focus group discussions. The findings show that students' intention to use the platform is affected by their attitude toward the platform, which is significantly influenced by perceived usefulness. Further suggestions regarding the design and implementation of a learning platform are provided based on the observations and results of the study. This preliminary study provides valuable insights into our further refinement of the platform and development of a learning analytics platform in the future for better learning of students in statistics.

Online discussions have become inherent components of both face-to-face and distance education college courses, yet they often fail to provide much benefit to students' learning outcomes. One reason behind this phenomenon is the lack of or inadequate scaffolding or guidance provided to students when participating on asynchronous discussion boards. Although some existing tools and strategies may encourage meaningful academic discussions by eliciting conflict among students, scientific concepts do not always lend themselves to such discourse. Instead, collaborative activities in the area of science need to incorporate the co-critiquing of a flawed external source, with appropriate scaffolding to also benefit students with low self-regulation levels by mediating cognitive and metacognitive processes. The authors designed and tested such a tool, termed Collaborative Misconception Mapping (CMM), which combines the positive effects of concept mapping and the Questioning the Author comprehension strategy. Compared with a discussion-questions based online activity, the use of the online CMM strategy lead to more meaningful discussions, as well as increased knowledge of basic statistical concepts.

Everyone would encounter the life issue of solving complicated problems generated by economic behaviors among all activities for making a living. Various life problems encountered therefore could be generalized by economic statistics. In other words, a lot of important events in daily life are related to economic statistics. For this reason, teaching students to understand the world, make reasonable decisions, and behave correctly on important personal or social issue has been the major objectives and directions of education. Taking universities in Fujian Province as the research subjects, including Xiamen University and Fuzhou University, the experimental design is applied to this study. The research results reveal that 1. creative problem solving teaching would affect attitudes toward learning, 2. creative problem solving teaching would influence learning achievements, 3. attitudes toward learning show significantly positive effects on learning effect in learning achievements, and 4. attitudes toward learning present notably positive effects on learning gain in learning achievements. According to the results, suggestions are eventually proposed in this study, expecting to train students' ability to make correct judgment and solve problems when facing the diverse and complicated information in the society or the critical choice of continuing study or looking for employment as well as to enhance the urgency.

The aim of the paper is to investigate the main factors influencing the adoption and continuous utilization of statistical software among university social sciences students in Slovenia. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a conceptual model was derived where five external variables were taken into account: statistical software self-efficacy, computer attitude, statistics anxiety, statistics learning self-efficacy, and statistics learning value. The model was applied to the purposive sample of 387 university social sciences students in Slovenia who have been introduced to IBM SPSS Statistics during statistics courses. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicated that all external variables considered in the model directly or indirectly affect the behavioural intention to use statistical software and are therefore relevant for our study. The most influential factors are found to be statistics anxiety and statistics learning value. The latter one plays a central role in our extended TAM, as its impact is stronger when compared with other external variables. The findings from our empirical study are useful for statistics educators. The recommendations proposed can improve the educational process in order to strengthen students' attitudes towards statistics and to decrease the level of statistics anxiety.

The initial year of university is often a sensitive period for new students. Commencing students may lack the necessary skills and resources to adapt to unfamiliar learning environments. One intervention demonstrating academic benefits is Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS). PASS is a structured peer led study group where students collectively share knowledge and solve course-related tasks. To date there has been limited empirical exploration into "how" PASS enhances student performance outcomes. To amend this gap, the current study used both a cross-sectional (n = 264) and a matched longitudinal (n = 76) survey design, combined with PASS attendance and course performance data, to investigate three psychological mechanisms that may mediate these effects: increased academic engagement, a positive student identity, and increased statistics self-efficacy. Sampling a first-year psychology cohort enrolled in an introductory statistics course, both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses found a positive relationship between PASS attendance and academic performance. Furthermore, self-efficacy mediated the relationship between PASS attendance and student performance.

One innovative way to help students make sense of survey research has been to create a multifaceted, collaborative assignment that promotes critical thinking, comparative analysis, self-reflection, and statistical literacy. We use a short questionnaire adapted from the Higher Education Research Institute's Cooperative Institutional Research Program's Freshman Survey. In our Research Methods course, students begin by administering the brief questionnaire to a small, nonrandom sample of students at our university. They analyze the data descriptively and compare their "results" to the national trends as part of their required course homework. These data are then quantitatively analyzed throughout all homework exercises the next semester during their statistics course. This collaborative effort bridges methods, statistics, and capstone courses, helping students connect the courses and develop a deeper understanding, awareness and appreciation of the utility of preestablished instruments for collecting primary data and for assessing the meaning of secondary data.

Aim/Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness of incorporating wiki technology in an undergraduate biostatistics course for improving university students' collaborative learning, approaches to learning, and course performance. Methodology: During a three year longitudinal study, twenty-one and twenty-four undergraduate students were recruited by convenience sampling and assigned to a wiki group (2014-2015) and a control group (2013-2014 and 2015-2016), respectively. The students in the wiki group attended face-to-face lectures and used a wiki (PBworks) weekly for online- group discussion, and the students in the control group had no access to the wiki and interacted face-to-face only. The students' collaborative learning, approaches to learning, and course performance were evaluated using the Group Process Questionnaire (GPQ), Revised Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) and course results, respectively, after testing. Findings: Multivariate analysis of variance results revealed that the R-SPQ-2F surface apCproach score, surface motive and strategy subscores were lower in the wiki group than in the control group (p < 0.05). The GPQ individual accountability and equal opportunity scores (components of collaboration) were higher in the wiki group than in the control group (p < 0.001). No significant between-groups differences were found in any of the other outcome variables (i.e., over-all course result, R-SPQ-2F deep approach score and subscores, GPQ positive interdependence score, social skills score, and composite score). Looking at the Wiki Questionnaire results, the subscale and composite scores we obtained were 31.5% to 37.7% lower than the norm. The wiki was used at a frequency of about 0.7 times per week per student. Recommendations for Practitioners: Using wiki technology in conjunction with the traditional face-to-face teaching method in a biostatistics course can enhance some aspects of undergraduate students' collaborative learning (individual accountability and equal participation opportunity) and approaches to learning (with less surface learning). However, use of a wiki does not improve course performance.

This study identified the moderated mediation relationship among age, Internet self-efficacy, and statistics anxiety on student satisfaction after controlling for demographics and technology experiences in research methods courses in a blended professional doctoral program. One hundred and thirty-one students in a three-year Ed.D. Program participated in the study. The results show that after controlling for gender, ethnicity, and technology experiences, age was negatively associated with Internet self-efficacy and Internet self-efficacy mediated the relationship between age and course satisfaction as well. Although the moderation effect of statistics anxiety between self-efficacy and student satisfaction was not supported, there was still partial evidence that the group with statistics anxiety behaved differently from the group without statistics anxiety in terms of the conditional indirect effect of age on course satisfaction. The authors call for future studies to focus on online or blended research courses in professional doctoral programs and test the proposed conceptual model.

This pilot study measures university students' perceptions of graded frequent assessments in an obligatory statistics course using a novel questionnaire. Relations between perceptions of frequent assessments, intrinsic motivation and grades were also investigated. A factor analysis of the questionnaire revealed four factors, which were labelled "value," "formative function," "positive effects" and "negative effects." The results showed that most students valued graded frequent assessments as a study motivator. A modest number of students experienced positive or negative effects from assessments and grades received. Less than half of the students used the results of frequent assessments in their learning process. The perception of negative effects (lower self-confidence and more stress) negatively mediated the relation between grades and intrinsic motivation. It is argued that communication with students regarding the purpose and benefits of frequent assessments could mitigate these negative effects.

In general, anxiety has been found to be associated with motivational beliefs and the current study investigated multivariate relationships between statistics anxiety and motivational beliefs among 305 college students (60.0% women). The Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and a set of demographic questions were used to collect the data. Results show that the first canonical correlation was 0.62 and accounted for approximately 39% overlapping variance and the second was 0.35 and accounted for more than 13% overlapping variance. Results indicate that students who had higher levels of task value, self-efficacy, and intrinsic goal orientation and lower levels of test anxiety displayed lower levels of statistics test anxiety, computational anxiety, fear of statistics instructor, fear of asking for help and interpretation anxiety and more positive attitudes towards statistics (i.e., lower scores indicating more positive attitudes). Results are discussed in relation to current literature.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impacts of teaching style, English language and communication and assessment methods on the academic performance of undergraduate business students in introductory quantitative courses such as Statistics for Business 1 and 2, Quantitative Methods for Business, Operations and Production Management and Operations Research in a non-Western setting. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected from 750 undergraduate business students in third- and fourth-year classes at the UAE University (UAEU). Descriptive statistics were used to gain some insights into the demographic and educational characteristics of respondents and their opinions regarding the importance of the three factors of concern to their understanding of quantitative courses material, along with multiple regression analysis that was used to test the hypotheses of the study. Findings: The results of the present study indicate the importance of the teaching style in terms of the way the lecturer speaks and the pace of presenting the material, in addition to the structure of the lecture in understanding quantitative course material. Additionally, availability and contents of the material on the course website play an important role in helping undergraduate business students understand the subjects of quantitative courses. The study revealed that the UAEU undergraduate business students are, to some extent, uncomfortable in reading printed textbooks and writing reports on quantitative topics in English. The results of multiple regression analysis revealed that both teaching style and English language and communication have a great influence on the academic performance of UAEU undergraduate business students. Research limitations/implications: The paper has a number of limitations. For instance, the sample was taken only from students in a single university. Moreover, this study focuses on the business students and in turn, it excludes students of other colleges. On the other hand, it has a number of implications for administrators, instructors and researchers. Administrators should pay special attention when setting admission standards. Instructors teaching quantitative courses should prepare well-structured lectures and deliver them at a reasonable pace to allow students the time to understand them. They should also pay attention to the way they speak. For researchers, this study will indicate the need for further research to confirm or refute the results of the present study. Originality/value: The present study is the first attempt to investigate the impacts of the three factors of concern on the academic performance of undergraduate business students in introductory quantitative courses in a public university setting in the UAE context.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the state of undergraduate business statistics education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and assess its alignment with the best practices in equipping business graduates with the knowledge and skills demanded by the labor market. Design/methodology/approach: A survey of 108 instructors from 80 business schools in 17 MENA countries was conducted to gauge information on the delivery of business statistics courses. The survey results were bench marked to a proposed framework for best practices in business statistics education. Findings: The gap analysis identified deficiencies in the delivery of business statistics education in the region as compared to international best practices. This study revealed a need to revise statistics education as part of a comprehensive reform of business education with the aim to meet international quality standards in business education. Research limitations/implications The study relied on the self-reported responses of business statistics instructors in MENA. One hundred eight questionnaires were completed, corresponding to a response rate of 40 per cent. Moreover, the study did not measure the effectiveness of teaching and learning in business statistics courses. Practical implications: Recommendations from the study are intended to guide business statistics instructors in improving the quality of business statistics education through adopting more effective ways to enhance student learning experience and graduate employability. Originality/value: This study is the first of its kind to investigate and assess the business statistics education in the MENA region.

Among the wide range of factors related to the acquisition of statistical knowledge, competence in basic mathematics, including basic probability, has received much attention. In this study, a mediation model was estimated to derive the total, direct, and indirect effects of mathematical competence on statistics achievement taking into account probabilistic reasoning ability. The participants were psychology students enrolled in an undergraduate introductory statistics course. At the beginning of the course, all students completed a questionnaire to measure their proficiency in the basic probabilistic reasoning and mathematics skills required in introductory statistics courses. At the end of the course, the students' final grades were collected. The hypothesized mediation model was tested using a bootstrapping procedure (with 5,000 bootstrap samples). Results showed a significant positive, indirect effect of mathematical competence on students' final grades, with probabilistic reasoning ability acting as a mediator. This study suggests that interventions designed to promote the mathematical prerequisites necessary to probabilistic reasoning can have a positive effect on achievement in statistics.

This study applies the theory of planned behavior as a basis for exploring the impact of knowledge, values, subjective norms, perceived behavioral controls, and attitudes on the behavioral intention toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education among Taiwanese preservice science teachers. Questionnaires (N = 139) collected information on the behavioral intention of preservice science teachers engaging in STEM education. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, path analysis, and analysis of variance. Results revealed that, in terms of direct effects, higher perceived behavioral control and subjective norms were associated with stronger STEM teaching intention. More positive attitude and greater knowledge were indirectly associated with higher subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, which resulted in stronger STEM teaching intention. Additionally, gender did not affect preservice teachers' intention to adopt STEM teaching approaches. However, preservice teachers whose specialization was in different fields tended to influence their knowledge and perceived behavioral control; these issues require further investigation.

In the official curriculum documents of many countries, statistical thinking have become part of the mainstream in school curriculum. We argue that teacher capacity is a key dimension in realizing essential goals for developing students' statistical literacy, reasoning and thinking in practical teaching. In this paper, a construct of Teacher Capacity was used to analyze how Australian and Chinese teachers understand and give effect to content in "Statistical thinking". The responses of the 82 teachers involved in the study to a questionnaire were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of four criteria which form the basis of our construct of teacher capacity: Knowledge of Mathematics, Interpretation of the Intentions of the Official Mathematics Curriculum, Understanding of Students' Thinking, and Design of Teaching. These analyses gave rise to three classifications of Teacher Capacity: High, Medium and Low Capacity. Australian teachers performed slightly better on all four criteria than Chinese teachers, but there did not exist statistically significant difference. Among the four criteria, Design of Teaching appears to be the critical dimension for the implementation of curriculum reform.

We surveyed researchers in the health and exercise sciences to explore different areas and magnitudes of bias in researchers' decision making. Participants were presented with scenarios (testing a central hypothesis with p = 0.06 or p = 0.04) in a random order and surveyed about what they would do in each scenario. Participants showed significant bias in deciding to randomize additional participants when p = 0.06 (24.5%) compared to when p = 0.04 (6.5%), ?[superscript 2] = 19.86, odds ratio (OR) = 13.5. Based on this bias to randomize additional participants, we present statistical simulations showing the cumulative negative effect this bias has on the false positive rate for a field. While it is important for researchers to have flexibility in their data-processing decisions, there is a cost/benefit trade-off to experimenter degrees of freedom and it is important that these decisions be unbiased. These data highlight the importance of a priori analysis plans in research.

Due to changes in Dutch mathematics education, teachers are expected to use new teaching methods such as enquiry-based teaching. In this study, we investigate how teachers design, implement and evaluate new methods for statistics teaching for 7th-graders during a professional development trajectory based on peer collaboration. We monitored teachers' development in a network of four mathematics teachers from the same school. By using a mixed-methods approach in which we combined data from interviews, concept maps and classroom observations, we describe changes in teachers' practical knowledge. We found how the nature of these changes highly depends on teachers' personal concerns that emerge during the trajectory. Some teachers considered their concerns as challenges stimulating their learning, while other teachers experienced their concerns as a reason to fall back to previous teaching methods. Based on our results, we give some recommendations for organising teacher networks.

This study investigates students' perceptions of computer-based learning environments, their attitude towards business statistics, and their academic achievement in higher education. Guided by learning environments concepts and attitudinal theory, a theoretical model was proposed with two instruments, one for measuring the learning environment and the other for measuring student attitude. Data were collected from 453 postgraduate business students in a UK university. Factor analyses were carried out to validate the instruments, whilst structural equation modelling was employed to validate the proposed model. The results demonstrate the importance of students' perceptions of subject integration within the learning environment and the relationship between their perceptions of cohesiveness, task orientation, and anxiety. The findings show that attitude towards statistics is significantly related to achievement, explaining almost 40% of variation, whilst perception of the learning environment (indirectly) explains about 29% of the achievement. Implications for teaching business statistics in higher education are discussed.